Friday's hearing went on for four hours in St. Petersburg, Fla., the New York Times reported, and Yankees management had promised not to hold back in pleading their case, which means Betances could have been offended and left with hard feelings.

"it's been a number of years since we've been through this, but the process is what the process is," Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said earlier this week. "It's nothing personal. We love Dellin. He knows that. He's great for the organization. He came up through the ranks. It's just a procedural thing."

The Yankees played hardball with Betances last week, too. Not having an bargaining power at the time, Betances didn't agree to accept the Yankees' best offer of $540,000 and ended up being renewed at the league minimum of $507,500 for the second year in a row.

Betances has been an excused absentee from spring training thus far, but told Billy Witz of the Times that he plans to attend Saturday's workout.

Betances, 28, has been an All-Star in each of his three full big-league seasons and owns a 2.16 career ERA overall (2011, 2013-16). He was very good again last season until struggling in the final two months as a closer and finished with a 3-6 record, 3.08 ERA, 12 saves and 126 strikeouts in 73 innings over 73 games.